Instagram October

So if you didn't already know, I'm kinda addicted to my iphone!  I could {and do} spend way too much time on it, searching my apps, checking my Facebook, Pinterest, Houzz... you get the idea.  However, my main obsession has got to be Instagram.  I'm hooked.  It's basically the only way I take pictures anymore.  My poor {might I add, lame} old camera has since got the boot.  So to catch the ole' blog up to speed, here's the month of October through the eye's of an Instagram.

Enjoy.





If you are also on Instagram and would like to follow my feed, my username is mimimade.  I'd love to follow you too!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas!
This past weekend {after debating whether or not to put decorations up this year} I decided to go ahead and decorate the house in the normal Holiday fashion.  Putting aside all the other things on my list, I went to work.  Tyler strung the lights {the colored variety this year} while I dug through box after box of decorations, picking just the right amount of trim and holly to display.

In Christmas past I've decorated in a specific color scheme, making sure everything matched the house and looked absolutely perfect before being viewed by others.
This year is a little different.
I decided to do a "family" tree.

Displaying all the fun homemade ornaments and special findings from our childhood.  This is what Christmas is supposed to be with little kids around the house.  Someday I plan on displaying two trees in our home.  A "family" tree as well as my tree.  But for now this is perfect.  Tommy helped me fill the branches with all our goodies while "A Christmas Story" played in the background.  What a sweet memory it made for me.

I knew I was having all my family members over on Sunday night for dinner, so I was determined to get as much up around the house as possible.  I continued on all through the night putting up as much as I could handle, til I finally crashed, well after midnight.  I'm so glad it's up though and now I can focus on all the other things on my To Do List.

Here's a little peek at what our home looks like before snuggling into bed.  

My Christopher Radko Collection.  Is usually displayed on a special tree in the front entry, but in fear of little miss Lola's wondering hands, I decided to display them up and out of her reach.

 Miscellaneous Snowmen and Santa's piled into one big display.

The Santa's Mail Bag was my Mother's, always hanging in the front hallway behind the door.  

Dawning all the Christmas cards and letters we would receive from friends and family.

A few of my fun Vintage finds.  

Our stockings look purple and blue in this picture, but are actually soft blue and teal.

The boys right before bed.  Snuggling up to daddy on the couch.

We also welcomed a new little member into our home this Holiday season.  He's our "Elf on the Shelf", Peek-A-Boo, who keeps track of all the happenings in our home.  He reports back to Santa each night to make sure everyone is still on the "nice" list.    

                              -and let me tell you, so far..... he's been worth every 3200 pennies we paid for him!  Tommy has caught his "attitude" issues and corrected them on a number of different occasions in fear that Peek-A-Boo will tell Santa about his naughtiness! 

Each night after returning back from the North Pole he positions himself 

on a new shelf somewhere throughout the home.  

Toms loves waking up and searching through the rooms to see if he can spot him first.  

A fun new tradition we plan on having for years to come!  

Welcome into our lives, Peek-A-Boo.

ok, 

I'm off to work on some Christmas orders, not a lot of time, but a LOT to do!  Wish me luck in getting it all done, as I'm sure each of you need luck in doing all of your things too!  

Such a busy time of year, but we all love it!

Mission Beach Reunion

Wow, what a great trip we had a couple weeks ago!  My Grandmother decided to pay for each and every one of her kin to spend a week together at the beach.  There was 84 of us there, and that wasn't even everyone.  Talk about a big investment!  We were all furnished with a pace to stay all within walking distance to the others and gas money to get us there and home.  What a generous gift this was to get all of the family together for one {possible} last reunion.

{Most of the family, only two or three couldn't make it}

We had such an enjoyable time!  Gathering together for beach olympics, dinner, church, blessing Rosie, sand castle contests and even a night of laughter and card playing.  We all had lots of catching up to do and had such a fun time getting to know all the new additions.  I was sad to come home, obviously.

But I took a ton of pics!  Here's a select few out of the over 500 that I took.  I love digital cameras with big memory cards.  Keep taking the picture until you get it right, that's my motto.

{Our great Reunion T Shirt's designed by my bro, Jimmy}

{So many of the pictures I took were of Lola as a sandy monster.  It took my Sister-In-Law SIX washes to get all the sand out of that head.  But Lola was loving it.  She was even caught dipping her cheetos in the sand before eating them.  Nasty!  But it kept her happy}

{We would walk down the boardwalk at night and play around in the arcades and ride a few rides.  We snacked on the biggest ice cream cones and snow cones you've ever seen.  Yummy stuff!}

{Tyler's sister, Hope joined us for the week as our nanny.  It was so nice having the extra help, this way there was one adult for each kid.  I need that every day!}

{In our little apt. there was tile everywhere and the rug was the most uncomfortable thing ever.  Our poor Lola kept falling down on it.  She was not a happy camper.  I'm sure she was happy to get home to normal walking conditions.}

{Cute baby Max was such a trooper!  He did great the whole time.  He's such a good baby, and don't you love those little shoes?}

I have so many more memories of this fun vacation to post but it's getting late and Mr. Max will be waking soon for a feeding.  I'll try to post more soon.  I seem to end every post with this saying.  So many memories, so little time.

May Memories

We had a lot going on in May but I didn't get a chance to blog about it.  So I'm doing a little catching up here.  Lots of pics.  Here we go.

We joined Miss Kate at her end of school water party.  Toms had lots of fun playing on the slip 'n slide with all the big kids.

We joined all my sister-in-laws at Nordy's one afternoon for a yummy lunch and light shopping.  We stayed to play in the kids area and Jack joined us.

Lola LOVED climbing up and down the slide.

We drove up to Camp Lomia for a plaque dedication with the Wright clan.  When Tyler's Great Grandpa Lorenzo was the Stake President he helped gain the property to build the girls camp.

One of the smaller plaques they had made.

My In-Laws did most of the work and planning for this.

My BIL, Jeff found a snake.  I even touched it!

Lola enjoying her Aunt Jill's lap during the program.

Of Course we had to make a stop at DQ before heading back into town.

Everyone noticed our dusty car and went right for the opportunity to embarrass Tyler on the way home.

The very first thing he did when we got home was take it through the car wash.  His family LOVES giving Tyler a hard time {and he usually deserves it!}.

A lot more was going on but I wasn't very good about taking pictures this month.  Thanks for playing catch up!

Summer of '09, Greatest Hits

I figured I'd take a little blogger laxative and spill the memories for everyone.

So. Get. Comfortable.

Here we are on the weekend after the fourth. We go to see our fireworks show on the back nine at Encanto Golf Course. We are right up in the action, it's almost scary how close we sit.

Seriously, we were that close!

We went swimming with my fam for the fourth of July at my Mom's neighbors house. Toms LOVED the water that night.

He could jump in fast enough. He must have gone off the diving board 15 times.

My Brother Johnny and a naked Lola. She too loved the water.

The crazy jump competition. I thought this was a great action shot of Jimmy.

Love Joe's head just barely sticking up out of the water.

We also attended about a hundred All*Star games for Tyler's nephew's. Cody even made it to State. Good job to all who played. It made for some great entertainment for the family. Hot, but fun!

We hosted a couple different "Spend The Nights" at our place. Toms loves having his cousins come over to play. On this particular occasion we had SEVEN different kids spending the night. Not including our own two. Needless to say it was a full house! It's all about making memories though.

We also went to the public pools a few times. Here we took Toms{of course}, Buffy, Gracie and Emma. They love playing with each other so I try to get them together as much as possible to build their relationship. Buffy is my niece, from my side of the family and the others two are on Tyler's side. They love each other and even refer to each other as cousins. I think it's just so cute! I love 8 year old girls and all the fun they have!

Then we celebrated what would have been the 58th Birthday of my dad. He passed away on his Birthday so every year we get together as a family to celebrate his life and legacy. This year marks the 9th year he's been gone. Crazy how time flies. We sure do miss him.

{Dad and Cami at High School Graduation, 1997}

Next we spent a few different days at the mall playgrounds. Hey, it's cool and it's free! This is Jack, Tessa Toms and Seth {as well as some kid I don't know, apparently the other boys go to school with him}. They have a blast and it occupies them for hours and Tiff and I get to catch up. Good times!

Toms having way too much fun on the play train.

Lola not knowing what is going on.

Seth giving the kids a tour of the mall. "Keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times."

"Sup?" Lola in the hood!

Another trip to the mall with cousins. This time with Audrey, Joey and William. I loved this pick of sweet Audrey. You can tell she's having a good time. Thanks for calling us Jimmy to play. We need to do it again.

Picture time with Ashley and friends. You can see more of the shots HERE. Thanks for such a fun tradition Ash!

Toms was quite the poser!

Just hanging around the house, A LOT!! Here Toms is playing with Lola. She loves bouncing in her bouncer and he loves watching her.

Lola's First taste of food. Yum, cereal with Prune Juice.

Tommy FOREVER wanting to hold her! He really is much more gentle then I expected. ...and she loves him playing with her, go figure.

I finally bought Toms his own pair of big boy scissors. He's been begging for months. So he has his own little set of school supplies. Hey whatever keeps him occupied for 15 minutes at a time is great with me.

We also took Toms to the play place at good ol' McD's. One day we stopped and picked up little miss Provence to join us. They played and ate then played then ate. It was fantastic. They are still too small to climb up the play equipment so they just play around the bottom of it. Perfect, that means I never have to go up there after them. This was the best shot I could get. Toms was being silly and not posing for me. So I picked the one where P looks darling!

Me being bored while they played so I thought I'd play with the camera a bit. and yes, this was the best shot out of like 20. Sad, I know.

Wow, a lot, huh! Told ya. Thanks for all the memories. Goodbye Summer and Hello school year. Too bad we can't say goodbye heat yet!